Quebec sovereigntists sound language alarm, again, over poll

MONTREAL — Ever on the lookout for signs the province is headed for disaster, sovereigntists jumped all over a poll last week purporting to show that Quebec anglophones couldn’t care less about French.

Yves-François Blanchet, the Parti Québécois language critic, cited the special report in the magazine L’actualité as evidence that Quebec’s language law, Bill 101, urgently needs to be strengthened. “It’s quite the warning shot,” he said of the poll conducted by the firm CROP.

The magazine certainly did its best to set knees trembling. The cover featured a frog holding a sign reading “Ici, on parle English” (We speak English here). Inside columnist Jean-François Lisée interpreted the results to mean that anglo-Quebecers — in particular those 18-34 — do not feel “the least bit responsible for the future of French.”

Discouraging if true, but after reading the poll’s questions, it is hard to make any sweeping conclusions.

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Part of the survey consisted of statements, to which respondents indicated whether they agreed or disagreed. Here is one of the statements, the responses to which Mr. Lisée found so troubling because only 37% agreed: “The predominant position of the French language is the key component of Montreal’s originality. Without it, the city would lose its soul.”

So unless you agree that the loss of French predominance would leave the city soulless, you lack solidarity with the French-speaking majority.

Another question asked, “Should large Montreal corporations be allowed to hire unilingual anglophones as managers, even if this means that French-speaking employees need to work in English?” When 63% of respondents said yes, Mr. Lisée wrote on his blog that anglophones opposed the right of francophones to work in their language in large corporations.

Never mind that the 2006 census figures show that nearly 70% of Quebec anglophones are bilingual, and another survey in 2010 found that 82% consider themselves Quebecers. They are apparently out of touch with mainstream Quebec culture.

Worded as it was, the poll was not so much a scientific survey of attitudes as a test of linguistic correctness. And if anglophones were seen to have failed the test, it is unlikely Mr. Lisée was truly troubled. The report was grist for the mill for the PQ, whose support rises in direct relation to the level of language angst. And it happens that in addition to writing for the magazine and heading a Université de Montréal research institute, Mr. Lisée is an advisor to PQ leader Pauline Marois and is rumoured to be considering running for the party in the next election.

A glimpse of just where the PQ would take the language issue if elected came this week with Pierre Curzi’s tabling of a private member’s bill in the National Assembly overhauling Bill 101. With proposals to restrict access to English daycares, private schools and CEGEPs, the proposed legislation clearly identifies English as the biggest threat to Quebec’s future. The bill will never pass the current legislature, with its Liberal majority, but it would likely resurface in some form if the PQ’s current lead in opinion polls holds up through the next election campaign.

Mr. Curzi quit the PQ last spring, but his bill reflects work begun when he was PQ language critic, and many of its main changes are already official PQ policy. The tabling of the bill was greeted as “a significant contribution” by Mr. Curzi’s successor, Mr. Blanchet. “We share the same concerns and the same objectives,” Mr. Blanchet said.

Mr. Curzi’s bill would make French not only the official language, as is now the case, but “the common language of all Quebecers,” suggesting that anyone not able to speak French would not be considered a Quebecer.

It would prohibit the government from using any language other than French when communicating in writing with immigrants. Employers seeking to fill a job requiring knowledge of English would first have to provide government bureaucrats with a written explanation of why English is required. Chain stores with English names, such as Canadian Tire, would be required to include a French generic term on their outdoor signs.

And Bill 101’s rules forcing children of immigrants and francophones to attend school in French would be extended to cover toddlers in childcare centres and young adults in CEGEPs, the network of pre-university colleges. It would also extend to non-subsidized private English schools, which are currently exempt from Bill 101.

The poll in L’actualité and Mr. Curzi’s revamped Bill 101 send a common message to minority groups: You are not doing enough to fit in.

Immigrant families have been obeying Bill 101 and educating their children in French, only to be blamed for contributing to the decline of French should they seek to learn in English after high school. Anglophones have for decades been sending their children to French immersion, only to discover they also should have been buying them Marie-Mai recordings and educating them about Quebec City municipal politics.